Techniques for realizing the manipulative speech tactic of intimidation (based on F. M. Dostoevsky’s “Demons”)

The purpose of the study is to identify techniques for realizing the speech tactic of intimidation in a literary text. Intimidation is examined as a means of manipulative speech influence and as a tactic: a speech act intended to instill fear, terror, or anxiety in the addressee in order to compel them to think or act in a way desired by the manipulator. The article clarifies the meanings of the terms “manipulative speech influence”, “tactic of manipulative speech influence”, and “technique of manipulative speech influence”. The study demonstrates that literary texts are a suitable source for examining the communicative tactic of intimidation. The study’s scientific novelty lies in describing, through the speech behavior of Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky in Dostoevsky’s “Demons”, such techniques for realizing manipulative intimidation as “manipulative cautioning”, “manipulative warning”, “manipulative threat”, “provocative questions”, and “manipulative time pressure”. The linguistic means through which the manipulator influences his interlocutors are also analyzed.